


Bring It On Home to Me

by Firewhisperer13



Series: Guardians of the Galaxy Series [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Sequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:41:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24740959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firewhisperer13/pseuds/Firewhisperer13
Summary: Peter Quill and his fellow Guardians are hired by a powerful alien race, the Sovereign, to protect their precious batteries from invaders. When it is discovered that Rocket has stolen the items they were sent to guard, the Sovereign dispatch their armada to search for vengeance. As the Guardians try to escape, the mystery of Peter's parentage is revealed. All Rights Reserved, Marvel Entertainment Studios, 2017.
Relationships: Peter Quill/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Guardians of the Galaxy Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789015
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

I twirled the rifle around on my fingers while waiting for something… _anything_ to happen. I mean, we’d been summoned here for a reason, but we’d clearly shown up far too early. Our leader had claimed that was a ‘good’ thing, rattling on about setting up, but I wasn’t buying it. The setting around me should have been enough of a marvel to distract me, but I was growing impatient at this point. The sky was a black sheet across the planet, contrasting the bright spheres around us, glowing with a mysterious sort of orange light. Everything around us was built from gold, silver, or a gem or material that signified the status of the race that lived here. They weren’t ones to skimp, which was why _certain_ members of our team were so eager to snatch up this job.

Lightning flashed within the grey clouds above our heads, and the device we were using to track this Abilisk- which was actually an old Madden Electronics Classic Football game- started beeping like crazy.

“Showtime, a-holes!” I carefully shifted the sword on my hip over a little bit to keep it from poking my leg. “It will be here any minute.”

“Which will be its loss.” My stoic and slightly confused expression shifted to a smirk as I cocked the rifle.

“I thought your thing was a sword?”

I shot an exhausted glance at the man on my right.

“We’ve been hired to stop an interdimensional beast from feeding on those batteries, and I’m gonna stop it with a sword?”

“It’s just, swords were your thing, and guns were mine,” he muttered. “But I guess we’re both doing guns now. I just didn’t know that.”

“Peter, I swear to god…” I tugged on a few strands of my ponytail- a little quirk I’d picked up- in frustration.

“Drax, why aren’t you wearing one of Rocket’s aero-rigs?” Gamora questioned.

“It hurts,” he admitted, almost seeming ashamed of that fact.

“It hurts?”

Drax hesitated a moment, looking around for some other reason than the truth before admitting the reason.

“I have sensitive nipples.”

Below him, the raccoon burst into a fit of harsh laughter, making it more obvious that he was mocking Drax above all else.

“‘My nipples hurt! Oh, goodness me!’”

“What about him?” Drax shouted, pointing at the pile of scraps Rocket had been fiddling and tinkering with this whole time. “What’s he doing?”

“I’m finishing this so we can listen to tunes while we work.” My face scrunched up in confusion.

“How is that a priority?”

“Blame Quill.”

Of course Rocket immediately shifted the blame.

“He’s the one who loves music so much.”

“No, I actually agree with Drax on this. That’s hardly important right now.”

“Okay. Sure, Quill.”

It was pretty clear that Rocket was trying to make his winking subtle, but he was using the wrong eye, so it was instead on full display for everyone to see.

“No, seriously, I side with Drax.”

“No, I understand that.” The winking didn’t stop. “You’re being very serious right now.”

“I can clearly see you winking.”

“Damn it. I’m using my left eye?”

I shook my head at the idiots as little, Baby Groot came running by, screaming as he chased a couple of Orloni around. There was already a mass amount of chaos unfolding around us, and the Abilisk hadn’t even shown up to wreak its own havoc.

“I am Groot.”

“They were not looking at you funny.”

The next flash of lightning caused a group of clouds to gather together around a spot and reveal some of the rainbow atmosphere that had been buried by the darkness. From the hole, a large creature flailed its tentacles around as it screamed through sets of sharp teeth, bug eyes dead set on us.

“Well, that’s intense.”

I stepped back into my position beside Gamora and readied the rifle.

“You ready for this?”

“Ready to save these morons’ asses.” I laughed at her statement.

As soon as it crashed down in front of us, Drax pulled the daggers from his belt and let out a battle cry before jumping straight at the creature as it slammed a tentacle down.

“Well, I guess we’re doing this.”

Gamora activated her aero-rig and flew straight toward the Abilisk, immediately firing shots at it. I stretched out the arm that wasn’t holding the rifle and wrapped it around one of the creature’s tentacles to launch myself forward, shooting as I was in the air. It roared loudly in protest of our actions, but didn’t seem to be getting injured at all. I tried shooting closer to its eyeball, but it once again roared at me before slapping my body away as though I were a fly.

I felt a dull pain in my back as I slammed against the ground, but I didn’t have any time to try and let myself recover. I rolled over to get myself up, but before I could, I noticed little, Baby Groot dancing to _Mr. Blue Sky,_ which I hadn’t noticed was playing until now. If I had been tossed just a few more inches to the left, Groot could have been crushed.

“Groot, get out of the way! You’re gonna get hurt!” He turned around and looked at me with those big, innocent eyes and waved with a smile on his face. “Hi.”

I pushed myself up and shot back over just as Drax was thrown past me and rolled across the ground.

“Oh, come on…”

I quickly jumped out of the way as it tried to snap its jaws around me and shot out some sort of rainbow substance from its mouth. I swung myself back toward the defensive area near Groot and continued to shoot from there. Quickly, Drax was snatched up and thrown again, this time directly onto the speakers, crushing them and causing Groot to kick at him in frustration. I shook my head as Drax got back up.

“The beast’s hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside,” Drax stated loudly. “I must cut through it from the inside.”

That made no sense. Its skin would have the same thickness from the inside as the outside. Jumping into that Abilisk would just be a death wish.

“No, no!” I shouted as he charged at it with a cackle. “Drax, wait a minute! Drax!”

Of course, he didn’t listen, instead opting to race straight at it, jump in the air, and shoot straight down its throat without getting snapped in half. I had to keep firing as Peter removed his mask, eyes wide in horror.

“What is he doing?”

“He said the skin is too thick to be pierced from the outside, so he-”

“That doesn’t make any sense!”

“I tried telling him that!”

“Skin is the same level of thickness from the inside as from the outside.” I was starting to get frustrated with Peter. I had already established that I understood the situation, but he was still ragging on.

“I realize that,” I snapped.

“There is a cut on his neck.” He tapped the side of one of his blasters to get it to work. “Rocket, get it to look up.”

I nodded as he put his mask back on and flew back toward the Abilisk, and he and Rocket flew around its head to try and get it to expose the wound. Eventually, it reared its head up to try and bite at Rocket, Peter, and Gamora. Taking the chance before it left me, I aimed the rifle straight at the wound and hit the trigger. But instead of a powerful shot killing it, the rifle beeped to indicate an error. I hit the trigger a few more times to no avail before tossing it aside and yanking the sword out from my belt. My heart jumped as it grabbed onto Peter with one of its tentacles and started throwing him around and roaring at him, causing me to act, possibly without thinking. I charged straight at the creature and used one of its tentacles to boost me up, plunging the sword straight into the wound and allowed gravity to drag the sword down and slice it open.

Green blood gushed down as it roared and flailed, dropping my friends before falling to the ground, dead. I carefully watched the side of its corpse, and let out a sigh of relief when Drax emerged from the wound, holding down a gag as he stepped out covered in the snot-like blood. He laughed and held his daggers up in triumph as Peter and I glanced at each other in confusion.

“Yes! I have single-handedly vanquished the beast!” He continued to cackle until Baby Groot chucked a little pebble at him. “What?”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms as we did our best to start cleanup.


	2. Chapter 2

It was just starting to get light out as I slipped my jacket back on and eyeballed the holder for the batteries. I noticed that Peter was having trouble getting the aero-rig off, so I strode over and pressed the button on his back, then extended my hand out to offer it to him. He offered a smile and nodded a ‘thanks,’ then picked up his own jacket and started to attempt and yank it on.

“What are they called again?” Drax inquired as he wiped the guts off of his chest.

“Anulax batteries.”

“Harbulary batteries…”

I shot Drax a confused look. Based on his tone, he clearly believed he had repeated exactly what Peter had said, but almost none of the letters within that word were even close.

“That’s nothing like what I just said.” I picked one that had fallen from the unit up and spun it back and forth in my fingers. “But they’re worth thousands of units apiece, which is why the Sovereign hired us to protect them.”

Upon hearing that, I quickly clicked it back into place, not wanting to take the chance of breaking it.

“Careful what you say around these folks, they’re easily offended. The cost of transgression is death.”

I cast a stern glance down at Rocket to warn him against opening his mouth in general. If any one of us was at risk of killing the others with their fat mouth, it was him.

The home of the Sovereign was a large, golden dome, really just digging it in how wealthy this society was. I was going to have to bite my tongue, at this rate. These people seemed unapologetic, and if this High Priestess talked down to us, I was going to have to exercise restraint.

People with faces of gold lined the inside of the dome, all the way to a large throne with the High Priestess Ayesha sitting tall. Following Peter’s lead, we all bowed before her and waited for her to speak.

“We thank you, Guardians, for putting your lives on the line.” Her voice was grand and commanding, filling every space in the sphere. “We could not risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens. Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community. Impeccable, both physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, germinating them in birthing pods.”

“I guess I prefer to make people the old-fashioned way,” Peter chimed in, as though he thought that his input was _really_ necessary.

“Perhaps someday, you could give me a history lesson… in the archaic ways of our ancestors. For academic purposes.”

I probably should have been angry, or hurt, at the High Priestess’ suggestion, but instead, I was just shocked. She was certainly bold, much bolder than I. My blood slightly boiled, but I really was just too busy being stunned and put into my place by her proposition.

“I would be honored, yes. In the name of research, I think it could be pretty…” He trailed off as soon as he got a look at my face. “...repulsive. I’m not into that kind of casual…” I rolled my eyes. There was no digging himself out of this hole.

“Oh, please,” I scoffed at him. “Your people promised something in exchange for our services. Bring it, and we shall gladly be on our way.”

She nodded her head to the side ever-so-slightly, and from the direction she had looked in, a Sovereign pushed out a struggling figure covered in a ripped and baggy cloak. I scrunched my eyebrow as they were pushed onto the ground, but it became clear once their hood was thrown aside, revealing a girl with a shaven, blue and purple head. She and Gamora glared at each other with anger and resentment in their eyes.

“Family reunion. Yay.” I lightly smacked Peter, finally indicating the moment wasn’t appropriate.

“I understand she is your sister.” It was almost like the High Priestess was trying to explain.

“She’s worth no more to me than the bounty due for her on Xandar,” Gamora stated calmly, contrasting the rough way she yanked her sister up to her feet.

“Our soldiers apprehended her attempting to steal the batteries. Do with her as you please.”

Gamora whirled her sister around and shoved her out of the sphere.

“We thank you, High Priestess Ayesha.” Peter turned to walk out, but the High Priestess had other ideas.

“What is your heritage, Mr. Quill?” I tried to get him to look at me, to tell him he didn’t have to answer. His family was a sensitive topic, one he really didn’t like to talk about.

“My mother is from Earth.” He answered in the most vague way possible.

“And your father?”

I grimaced. I had seen the question coming, but there was a part of me hoping she would have just let it slide.

“He ain’t from Missouri. That’s all I know.”

“I see it within you. An unorthodox genealogy. A hybrid that seems particularly… reckless.”

That was enough for me. The way she said it and the look on her face as she did… it was all signs she meant it to be an insult. Peter’s expression soured, and I reached out to grab his elbow and try to pull him out of there before he got snappy.

“You know, they told me you people were conceited douchebags, but that isn’t true at all.”

My eyes went wide and my jaw tightened as Rocket did that same obvious wink he had done before. We had to get out of here, _now_. The Sovereign gasped, and I started to usher everyone away.

“Oh, shit. I’m using my wrong eye again, aren’t I? I’m sorry, that was meant to be behind your back.”

As we walked away, I set a hand on Peter’s upper arm. Drax laughed at something Rocket said, but I chose to not let my curiosity get the better of me and make the stupid mistake of asking.

“Rocket, you fly the ship when we get back on it.”

He said nothing, but I knew he was going to do it, rather than risk facing my wrath. All I could think of was how desperately I needed a shower after all of this. But I didn’t want to leave Peter alone to deal with the High Priestess’ words.

“You gonna be okay if I go take a quick shower?” He tried his best to offer a sincere smile.

“Yeah, you go ahead.”

Even as I headed into the bathroom and let the warm water relax my muscles, I couldn’t keep my mind off of what the High Priestess had said. Peter had never known his dad, and now that there was even more mystery and intrigue surrounding him, I knew Peter couldn’t keep his thoughts away from his mystery parent.

Maybe, hopefully, we’d be able to find him if he was still alive and get the answers Peter needed.


	3. Chapter 3

Despite my hair still being wet, I tied it up into that same high ponytail to keep it out of my face. Gamora was tying Nebula up with some sort of handcuffs Rocket had invented to be nearly unbreakable, and I was trying my best to keep my eyes off of Peter as he threw off his old shirt and slipped on that blue, long-sleeved one he was pretty fond of. But right as I flicked my eyes over, his looked down at me, and I had to look away and pray that he hadn’t caught me.

“That stuff about my father…” Peter finally broke the ice on the awkward subject. “Who does she think she is?”

“I know you’re sensitive about that.” I looked up at him as he stared out the window, offering a smile of sympathy.

“I’m not sensitive about it,” he defended. “I just don’t know who he is.” He suddenly seemed to switch gears, and the hardened expression on his face softened.

“Sorry if it seemed like I was flirting with the High Priestess.” I shook my head. I just wanted to forget the incident. “I wasn’t.”

“I don’t care if you were,” I shrugged, deciding it was better to head into the cockpit and talk to Rocket and Groot than stay here and try to save face.

“Well, I feel like you do care,” Peter called after me. “That’s why I’m apologizing. So, sorry!”

I shook my head as the cockpit door in front of me slid open, and I was relieved to slide down into a seat and bury my head in one of my hands.

“What was that about?” Groot slid from his position on the top of the chair down to my shoulder, making me smile as he patted my cheek with his tiny hands.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He really never apologizes for things like that.”

“Well, you did seem pretty offended by his flirting.”

I shot my head up and glared at the back of his seat. He couldn’t just make an observation about me like that, assume that he had my feelings toward this situation figured out. He hadn’t seen Peter and I interact the entire time we had known each other, and his assumption wasn’t fair.

“You don’t know enough about this situation, Rocket,” I snapped.

“Yikes.” He had turned the chair around slightly to look back at me, but as soon as I had snapped, he whipped it back around and concentrated on flying the Milano to wherever we were needed next.

“I am Groot.”

“Hey,” I grunted. “There’s no tension. Peter would have tried to act on it ages ago.”

“No, he’s got you there,” Rocket chimed in. “We all know about it.”

I was about to open my mouth to retort, the door opened and Peter walked in. He patted the back of my chair before taking a seat in the co-pilot’s spot and strapping himself in. I couldn’t help but stare at the back of his head as I sat there. I thought I’d had him all figured out for the longest time. After all, he didn’t seem like a particularly complicated person, up until recently. Nova Prime first bringing up his genealogy had started a spiral of complexity, one that opened up all sorts of gates in Peter that I hadn’t known were there before.There were times when he would have nightmares about his mother, and need comfort, and other times when he would completely shut down. It was like everything I’d known about him had been flipped on its head.

“This is weird.” Curious, I stood up and leaned over the top of Peter’s chair. “We’ve got a Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Probably because Rocket stole some of their batteries.”

I snapped my head over and glared at Rocket. Did he seriously think they wouldn’t find out? This is the Sovereign we’re talking about, and they don’t screw around.

“Dude!” He looked back at Drax as though he was the one who did something wrong.

“Right. He didn’t steal some of those. I don’t know why they’re after us. What a mystery this is.”

I rolled my eyes, then suddenly was forced to grip tighter onto Peter’s chair as the Milano violently shook and was thrown in another direction.

“What were you thinking?” Peter snapped at Rocket.

“Dude, they were really easy to steal!”

“That’s your defense?”

“Come on! You saw how that High Priestess talked down to us. Now I’m teaching her a lesson!”

Gamora quickly sat down in the third chair and did her best to find the quickest jump point to get us away from the Sovereign fleet. I was suddenly thrown against the wall, pain shooting through my arm as I managed to get myself back up and tightly wrapping my arms around the back of Peter’s chair.

“I didn’t realize your motivation was altruism. It’s really a shame the Sovereign have mistaken your intentions, and they’re trying to kill us,” Peter deadpanned.

“Exactly!”

“I was being sarcastic!”

“Oh, no! You’re supposed to use a sarcastic voice! Now I look foolish!”

“Can we put the bickering on hold until _after_ we survive this massive space battle?” I shouted over the chaos.

“More incoming!”

“Good! I wanna kill some guys!” Rocket let out a loud yell as he pushed the ship forward and fired at the gold and blue pods.

“You’re not killing anything,” Gamora sighed. “All those ships are remotely piloted.”

Peter looped the ship up, and I got the chance to look closer, seeing that there were screens on the front of the ships, rather than windows into a cockpit.

“What’s the nearest habitable planet?” Peter called back to Gamora. She typed something on the screen and then flipped the top layer out.

“It’s called Berhert.”

“How many jumps?”

“Only one. But the access point in forty seven clicks away.” The Milano lurched again as a large blast hit one of the wings. “And you have to go through that quantum asteroid field.”

My eyes went wide as I watched large rocks jump in and out of existence, creating an unpredictable pattern. The entire Sovereign fleet had followed behind us, and there was a part of me that knew if we got through this field, we’d be able to lose them. But there was still that overwhelming part that would rather avoid the field and live.

“Quill, to get through that… you’d have to be the greatest pilot in the universe,” Drax gawked.

“Lucky for us, I am.”

“I am,” Rocket chimed in at the same time. I sighed and slumped slightly against the chair, before a violent shake caused me to bolt upright.

“This is it,” I mused dramatically. “It was nice knowing you guys.”

I tried my best to keep what I had eaten today down as the Milano was lurched back and forth, unable to focus on the victory of the Sovereign fleet dropping like flies behind us. Peter violently thrust the lever forward a few times as a few more ships behind us exploded.

“I’ve been flying this rig since I was ten years old.”

“I was cybernetically engineered to pilot a spacecraft.”

“You were cybernetically engineered to be a douchebag!”

“Stop it,” I ordered. I was tired of their bickering, and it wasn’t important right now.

“Quill. Later on tonight, you’re gonna be laying down in your bed, and there’s gonna be something squishy in your pillow case. And you’re gonna be like, ‘What’s this?’, and it’s gonna be because I put a turd in there!”

“You put your turd in my bed, I shave you.”

“The maturity is just overwhelming,” I muttered.

“Oh, it won’t be _my_ turd. It’ll be Drax’s.” Drax burst out into his uproarious cackle.

“I have famously huge turds.”

“We’re about to die, and _this_ is what we’re discussing?”

“Thank you, Gamora.” I gestured in her direction before almost being thrown to the floor. The ship was being yanked back and forth as Peter and Rocket fought for control, lurching the rest of us back and forth.

“Son of a…”

“Hey! Let me…”

An alarm started going off as the hatch to the Milano was blown off by an asteroid, most likely trying to suck Nebula out into the void of space. But we had bigger concerns than Gamora’s criminal sister. The ship started spinning in circles, and as I did my best to hold on, Groot was tossed in my direction, and I had no choice but to let one of my hands go and grab onto the little tree. In the chaos of the moment, Peter managed to put up the emergency barrier that was in place in case the hatch got blown off.

“Idiots!” I heard Nebula shout.

“Well, that’s what you get when Quill flies.”

Gamora tossed a piece of metal that had come loose in Rocket’s direction.

“We still have a Sovereign craft behind us.”

“Our weapons are down.”

“Okay, well someone has to do something!”

“Twenty clicks to the jump!”

Drax pushed past all of us and descended the stairs to where Nebula and the barrier were, along with our space suits and weapons. I started to put the pieces together, and as soon as I realized what he was going to do, my heart jumped.

“He’s insane…”

The ship started to shake more violently, and now disconnected wires were sparking.

“Fifteen clicks to the jump!”

Drax opened the barrier and jumped out, only staying with us by a violent yank from the tether.

“Ten clicks!”

He fired the gun repeatedly at the single Sovereign craft, violently swinging back and forth until finally, one of the blasts took down the craft.

“Five clicks!”

Suddenly, we were surrounded by another large fleet of Sovereign crafts.

“Son of a…!” I shouted, frustrated. “They went around the field!”

I ducked and closed my eyes as the all started to fire on us at once, and I could feel Peter’s hand slither down to mine and grip it tightly.

There was a loud explosion, and the ship stopped shaking. Carefully, I opened my eyes and sat up, looking out to see all of the Sovereign ships gone.

“What the…?”

“One click!”

“What is that?” I looked out Rocket’s window to see a strange, ovular ship going past us.

“Who cares? That’s the jump point! Go!”

“It’s a guy…”

The two of them pushed up their levers to get the ship through the hexagonal jump point, and immediately, the environment around us changed to a large, green forest with blue skies. But with that, the ship burst into flames and started plummeting straight toward the ground.

“Oh, my god. He’s still out there?” I whipped around to look at Gamora.

“Drax is still out there? He’s not gonna make it!”

Suddenly without fear, I pried myself from Peter’s seat and sprinted down the stairs, lifting the barrier and getting through just as the tether broke free from the side of the ship. Thinking fast, I stretched my arm out and grabbed onto the anchor. The force of the vacuum yanked me from where I was standing, and I had to grab onto one of the broken pieces of the ship and close my eyes as I hoped I would live. My muscles felt like they were going to give out as I tried to pull him back in, but to no avail.

The ship violently crashed onto the ground, and I held onto Drax’s tether until the skidding stop. I couldn’t fight a smile as I realized we were still alive.


	4. Chapter 4

I nodded at Peter as he helped me up off the dirt ground. I looked around for cuts and dusted myself off, hoping the brown on my clothes would come off after washed.

“That was awesome!” Drax declared as he pushed himself off the forest floor. “Yes!”

Gamora, however, was less enthused about the crash-landing. As soon as she got up, she turned to glare at Peter and Rocket with seething eyes.

“Look at this!” she screamed, pointing at the damaged Milano. “Where is the other half of our ship?”

“My ship.”

Both Gamora and I shot him an intense glare to silence his inappropriate interjection.

“Either one of us could have gotten us through that field… Had you flown with what’s between your ears instead of what’s between your legs!”

As soon as she turned away, Peter tried to take the chance to defend himself.

“If what’s between my legs had a hand on it, I guarantee I could have landed this ship with it.”

I shook my head. Peter was officially starting to get on my nerves with his interjections and defenses, and I knew I would be able to put him in his place if I spoke up.

“Peter, we almost died because of your arrogance,” I snapped.

“More like because he stole the Anulax batteries!” While he had a point, Peter had made it worse.

“They’re called Harbulary batteries.” Peter’s angry expression shifted from Rocket up to Drax.

“No, they’re not!”

“Do you know why I did it, Star-Munch?” He did his best to hide his hurt expression, but I knew his ‘outlaw name’ was a soft spot.

“I’m not gonna answer to ‘Star-Munch’.”

“I did it because I wanted to!” he shouted.

“Dick.”

“What are we even talking about this for? We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!”

“How little?”

“Well, I don’t know, like this?” Rocket held up two of his fingers and nearly pinched them together, leaving only a little bit of space between.

“A little, one-inch man saved us?” I sassed, resting my hands against my hips.

“Well, if he got closer, I’m sure he would be much larger.” I shook my head.

“Yeah, that’s how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon.”

“Don’t call me a raccoon!”

“I’m sorry. I took it too far.” Peter’s apology sounded nowhere near sincere. “I meant trash panda.” Rocket looked around at all of us with a confused expression.

“Is that better?”

“It’s worse,” Peter snickered. “It’s so much worse.”

“You son of a-”

Rocket charged at Peter and tried to jump on him, the latter only jumping back at the last second to avoid getting attacked.

“I’ve had it with you!”

“No! Back up!”

“Someone followed you through the jump point.”

At Nebula’s warning, we all looked up to see that ovular ship starting to descend toward the ground. I felt myself tense and I removed the long blade from its sheath on my side, and all of us circled together.

“Set me free,” Nebula demanded, “you’ll need my help.”

“I’m not a fool, Nebula.”

“You are a fool if you deprive yourself a hand in combat.”

“You’ll attack me the moment I let you go,” Gamora scoffed.

“No I won’t.” I rolled my eyes. Nothing about her tone indicated that she meant what she had said.

“You’d think an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie.”

“I bet it’s the one-inch man.”

“He’s not actually one inch, Drax.”

The ship that landed was sleek and shiny, with windows that looked as though they were made of amber. It made almost no noise as it landed and the light caught the white material it was made of in odd patterns. Everyone slowly broke formation and moved to stand in a line, staring with curiosity and caution as the ship finally touched the ground. The largest window opened, and from it emerged two figures. One was a female, presumably, with large, dark eyes and two antennae on the top of her head, while the other just looked like a normal, old man in eccentric clothing. There was a smile on his face as his eyes refused to leave Peter.

“After all these years, I’ve found you.”

Peter and I glanced at each other in confusion before looking back at the man.

“And who the hell are you?” he questioned gruffly.

“I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego… and I’m your dad, Peter.”

I heard Peter suck in a breath beside me as I raised an eyebrow. This man was Peter’s dad? The one that had abandoned him and his mom? Not to mention that they really didn’t look that similar. Any person could walk up and claim that they were Peter’s dad if they knew enough about him. There was no reason to trust him, and I could tell Peter was thinking the same thing as he stepped closer with whoever that woman was.

“My… what?” He was in utter disbelief.

“You dad. I thought I made that obvious.” I shook my head and sheathed my sword, but remained cautious. His supposed dad looked around at all of us for a moment before focusing back on his ‘son’.

Following the revelation, Peter turned around and started to walk back toward the wreckage of the Milano. I could see the gears in his head turning as he tried to process what he had just been told. I knew there was nothing I could say that would ease his mind or comfort him, so as I stepped closer, I just placed a hand on one of his shoulders. He smiled back at me for a second before continuing to stand there and stare.


	5. Chapter 5

The fire illuminated our faces in odd ways as most of us finished up the instant dinner we’d heated up from packets we kept inside the Milano for the times we were stuck in the middle of nowhere. We had decided to hear Ego out on his case, and as soon as most of us were done eating, he began to tell his story.

“I hired Yondu to pick you up when your mother passed away. But instead of returning you… Yondu kept you. I have no clue as to why.”

“Well, I’ll tell you why.” Peter’s voice had that gravely quality to it that indicated he was upset. “Because I was a skinny little kid who could squeeze into places adults couldn’t. It made it easier for thievin’.” His voice always seemed to rise as soon as he started talking about his childhood with the Ravagers, so in an attempt to calm him down, I rested a hand on his forearm and gently ran my thumb up and down it a few times.

“Well, I’ve been trying to track you down ever since.”

There was silence as everyone tried to process everything that had been going on.

“I thought Yondu was your father.” All of us turned to look at Drax with looks ranging from judgemental to confused.

“What? We’ve been together this whole time, and you thought Yondu was my actual blood relative?”

“You look exactly alike,” he reasoned as he took another bite.

“One’s blue!” I groaned.

“No, he’s not my father! Yondu was the guy who abducted me, kicked the crap out of me so I could learn to fight and kept me in terror by threatening to eat me.”

“Eat you?” Ego chuckled.

“Yeah.”

“That son of a bitch.”

“How’d you locate us now?” There was a snap in Gamora’s voice as she asked the question.

“Even where I reside, out past the edge of what’s known, we’ve heard tell about the man they call Star-Lord. What say we head out there right now?”

Peter sat up straight as I raised an eyebrow. We were just in the middle of eating and trying to understand Peter’s connection with this man, and all of a sudden, he was suggesting we all go to wherever he lived? It was like those child predators Peter told me they would warn you about on Terra… or someone who wanted to kidnap and torture us.

“Your associates are welcome. Even that triangle-faced monkey there.”

Despite how rude he had been before, my heart softened as Rocket self-consciously reached up and touched his nose and his ears lowered.

“I promise you… it’s unlike any other place you’ve ever seen. And there… I can explain your very special heritage.” Peter nodded, and I saw the shift in his facial expression. “Finally get to be… the father I’ve always wanted to be.” It looked like Ego was starting to get choked up. “Excuse me. I’ve gotta take a whiz.”

I shook my head as Ego walked into the darkness of the woods to do… what he had to do. He really didn’t seem like the father type, but both Nova Prime and the High Priestess had indicated that this man really could be his father. Still, he was so eager to get all of us to go where he lived, I couldn’t help but be suspicious. Of course, there was the whole issue that Peter had never known his father, so even if he was suspicious himself, I’m sure some sort of chord was being struck within him.

I looked up at him to see him giving me a look of sadness, and almost some desperation. It was like he was asking for help, and I could never ignore that look.

“I’m not buying it,” he muttered.

“Let’s go take a walk.”

I stood up and barely waited for him to follow before sneaking off into the woods in the opposite direction Ego was facing. I took us as deep in as we could go without getting lost, then waited for him to tell me what he was thinking.

“Give me a break,” he scoffed. “After all this time, you’re gonna show up, and all of a sudden, you wanna be my dad?”

“I hear you.” He sudden turned on his heel and marched back toward me.

“And by the way, this could be a trap. The Kree purists, the Ravagers, they all want us dead.”

Whether I liked it or not, I had to try and take the other side of that argument.

“I know, but-”

“But what?”

I crossed my arms and stared straight at him.

“What was that story you told me about… Zardu Hasselfrau?”

I could remember the story clearly, but the names and details of certain facts had escaped me.

“Who?”

“He owned a… magic boat? I think…” Peter’s expression shifted from complete confusion to slight understanding.

“David Hasselhoff?”

Him saying that name felt like something had clicked in my brain.

“Right.”

“Not a magic boat. A talking car,” he corrected.

“Why did he talk again?”

“To help him fight crime, and to be supportive.” He sounded exasperated with me, but I could see a little sparkle in his eyes that showed me he was trying not to laugh at me.

“As a child, you would carry his picture in your pocket, and you would tell all the other children that he was your father, but that he was out of town.”

“Shooting _Knight Rider_ or touring with his band in Germany. I told you that when I was drunk. Why are you bringing that up now?” An affectionate hint of a smile fought its way onto my face.

“I love that story.”

“I hate that story.” Defeated, I sighed and turned away from Peter as he started to shout. “It’s so sad! As a kid, I used to see all the other kids off playing catch with their dad. And I wanted that, more than anything in the world!”

“That’s my point, Peter,” I interjected as he started to get hysterical. “What if this man is your Hasselhoff?”

He sighed and looked at me with those same, sad eyes. I could feel my heart start to beat faster, and I walked back over to him and took his hands.

“If he ends up being evil… we’ll just kill him.”

Peter’s eyes wandered down to our linked hands, and as soon as I realized what I was doing, I yanked them away and held them behind my back. But now, there was a smile on his face.

“You still wear that thing?” he asked.

“What thing?”

“That stupid snake ring I got you.”

I laughed and moved one of my hands back in front of me, looking down at the purple eyes glimmering in the moonlight.

“I love this stupid snake ring. It’s from the person who saved my life.”

“I don’t even remember where I stole it from.”

“I don’t care. I love it because you gave it to me, not because you know where it’s from, or even whether or not it’s expensive.”

“Allyson…”

“Peter?”

He looked down at me, and although he was trying to fight it at first, he eventually broke out into a smile.

“Come on.”

He wrapped an around my shoulders, and the two of us made our way back to our campsite. As soon as we got back, everyone stared at us suspiciously.

“What were you two doing in there?” Rocket teased.

“Nothing you’re thinking of,” I scoffed. “Everyone get their rest, some of us are going to go back with Ego tomorrow morning.”

“We’re really going to trust this guy?” I glared at Gamora.

“Yes, we are.” I gestured my head slightly toward Peter, hoping she would get the message. “Now seriously, let’s all get some rest.”

Peter and I went into the Milano and gathered enough blankets up for all of us, and slowly, people started to settle down and fall asleep. Eventually, it was just him and I awake, left talking by a dying fire.

“I know this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time, but I’m just trying to prepare myself to be disappointed, I guess,” he admitted.

I smiled and moved some of his hair from his eyes.

“Life isn’t always going to disappoint you, Peter. This guy could be the father you’ve been missing.” He tried to roll away from me, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back around. “Think about it. We’re going back to where your supposed dad lives, and if it turns out to really be him, then you’d finally have known your whole family. And maybe, you’d be able to stay with him for a while, catch up on everything he missed.”

He chuckled and smiled at me.

“Maybe. But there’s things here I would miss.”

“What? Like a broken ship? A raccoon that’s in denial of what species he is? A killer robot, a stretchy girl?” I joked.

“Yeah.”

I sighed and closed my eyes.

“Just think about it, okay?”


	6. Chapter 6

“You’re leaving me with that fox?”

I slung my bag over my shoulder as Gamora attempted to get us out of here.

“He’s not a fox,” she sighed. “Shoot her if she does anything suspicious. Or if you feel like it.”

“Okay.”

I looked down to see Groot with his big eyes pointed toward the ground, sad. My heart reached out to him, and I crouched down and offered a smile. 

“Hey. It’ll just be a couple of days.” I carefully wiped a tear from his eye. “We’ll be back before Rocket’s finished fixing the ship.” I got back up and looked back at Gamora, waiting for her to catch up before exiting the remains of the Milano.

“What if the Sovereign come?” Drax asked.

“There’s no way for them to know we’re here,” Peter answered. “Let’s go.”

“I’m uncertain about parting ways.”

“God, you’re like an old woman.”

“Because I’m wise?” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Why do you have so much luggage?” Gamora questioned.

“I don’t want Groot playing with my things.”

I looked back to see Peter staring at Rocket’s back, clearly debating whether to say goodbye to him or not. Before Peter could reach a decision, Rocket spoke up without looking at him.

“I hope Daddy isn’t as big of a dick as you, orphan boy.”

“What is your goal here? To get everybody to hate you?” Peter fired back. “Because it’s working.”

With that, Peter turned around and led us onto Ego’s ship. My eyes wandered back and forth between the pristine, white halls before I followed Drax into a common room, of sorts. We both set our things down at our feet, and I rested both my elbows against the back of the bench and slouched down as far as I could.

“You should tell Quill about your affections for him.”

My eyes immediately shot open and sat up a little straighter. Was I that obvious?

“What?”

“It is obvious you feel a desire for Quill…” I could feel my face turning red. “A desire to lay with him.”

I shot up straight, nearly right out of my seat.

“Drax, stop it!”

Peter walked into the common room and looked between Drax and I with one eyebrow raised.

“Everything okay in here?”

“Yup, yup, everything’s fine!” My voice cracked on that last word, and I hoped it wasn’t too obvious that I was embarrassed as I slumped back down.

“Okay…” He sat down beside me, but as soon as I remembered the conversation Drax and I just had, I shot up out of my seat and leaned against the white table. Peter shot me a look, but I pretended I didn’t see it and instead pretended I was adjusting my ring. Our conversations silenced as the girl, Mantis- as Drax had told us-, entered the room and sat down between Drax and Peter.

“Hello,” she greeted, looking at me. “I am Mantis.”

I smiled back at her. There was something so innocent and child-like about her.

“Hey. I’m Allyson.” She tilted her head at me.

“I have never seen anyone with two eye colors before. They are very pretty.” I chuckled and looked down at my feet before meeting her eyes again.

“Thanks. It’s, uh… it’s called heterochromia iridum, if I remember correctly.”

She was clearly confused by the big, scientific words I had just used, so I decided to drop it. There was an awkward silence as she looked between Peter and Drax, before the former finally spoke up.

“Hey, can I ask you a personal question?” She looked shocked.

“No one has ever asked me a personal question.”

“Your antennae, what are they for?”

I had to admit that I was curious myself. Other than suiting her whole bug aesthetic, they really didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose.

“Their purpose?”

“Yes. Quill and I have a bet.” Gamora stepped in front of me with a serious look on her face.

“You should tell Quill what you’re feeling.” I rolled my eyes and turned her around.

“Now’s not the time for that.”

_What is this, tell Allyson what to say day?_

“Dude.” Peter lowered his head, disappointed. “You’re not supposed to say that!”

“I say… if you are about to go through a doorway that is too low, your antennae will feel this, and keep you from getting decapitated.” I chuckled.

“Right. And if it’s anything other than you specifically not being decapitated by a doorway, I win.” She crinkled her eyebrows.

“They are not for feeling _doorways_.”

Drax groaned and leaned back in his seat, having been defeated by Peter’s ‘intelligence’.

“I think… they have something to do with my empathic abilities.”

“What are those?” I asked, growing more curious about who she is.

“If I touch someone, I can feel their feelings.”

“You read minds?”

“No. Telepaths know thoughts. Empaths feel feelings. Emotions.” She held one of her hands out and looked at Peter. “May I?”

“All right.”

She placed her hand on Peter’s arm and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, the tips of her antennae started to glow, and once that light faded, she opened her eyes.

“You feel love.”

Something resembling panic crossed Peter’s face. His mouth hung open for a few seconds before he managed to answer.

“Yeah. I guess I feel a general, unselfish love for just about everybody.”

“No! Romantic, sexual love.”

“No, I don’t!”

“For her.”

Mantis pointed in the general direction of Gamora and I, to the point where I couldn’t tell which one of us she was pointing at. Weirdly enough, my stomach suddenly felt like a pit, and I had to bite my lip to stop the burning in my throat. There was no way that it could have been me, right? Peter and I had been friends for too long, there was no way…

“No!” Peter protested as he pulled his hand away. Drax suddenly broke out into uproarious laughter, pointing at Peter as he gasped out his insults. “Okay.”

“She just told everyone your deepest, darkest secret!”

“Dude, I think you’re overreacting a little bit!”

“You must be so embarrassed!” Peter swallowed and looked down. “Do me! Do me!”

Mantis placed her hand on Drax, and a few seconds later, broke out into harsh, loud laughter.

“I have never felt such humor!” She collapsed down onto the bench, and the two of them pointed at Peter.

“So unbelievably uncool.”

“Quill!”

Still laughing, Mantis stood up and scuffled her way over to Gamora and reached out her hand to touch her. But before she could make contact, Gamora grabbed her wrist and glared at her.

“Touch me, and the only thing you’re gonna feel is a broken jaw.”

Mantis whimpered and cowered for a moment, before continuing to tell us about her powers.

“I can also alter emotions, to some extent.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

“If I touch someone who is sad, I can ease them into contentment for a short while. I can make a stubborn person compliant.” She shot a very clear look at Gamora. “But I mostly use it to help my master sleep. He lies awake at night, thinking about his progeny.”

Peter’s expression changed again, looking like he was surprised his father had been thinking about him.

“Do one of those on me.” Drax tapped his chest, and Mantis obeyed. She walked over to him and placed a hand on his forehead, the ends of her antennae glowing again.

“Sleep.”

Immediately, Drax’s body went limp, and he started to snore. I had to admit that I was impressed, but I couldn’t fight that hurt feeling all over me.

“I wish you had been around when I first met Allyson.” There was a smile on my face as Peter looked at me. “Things would have been a lot better for her.” 

For whatever reason, that did it. Tears welled in my eyes as I sucked in a breath at the pain in my chest. Peter noticed the change in my expression, and stood up.

“Whoa, whoa, Ally. What’s wrong?”

“I get that I’m not perfect, Peter!” I snapped. “You don’t have to remind me! I understand when I’m not good enough!”

“Allyson-”

Before he could try to defend himself, I rushed from the room, trying to get as far away from my friends as I could so they wouldn’t see me break down over something that, honestly, would probably seem pretty silly. As much as I loved Gamora and saw her as my best friend, I had to admit I didn’t think I was as good as her. She was this strong badass with the deadliest Titan in the universe for a father. I didn’t have anything that even came close to that, aside from, I suppose, history?

I turned the corner as Ego was waking up from a nap, sucking down the water rising to try and save face.

“Sorry if I woke you up,” I muttered, wiping my eyes to get rid of the rest of the tears.

“Oh, no. You’re fine…” He did that thing where people trailed off when they could remember a name.

“Allyson.” I smiled at him.

“Right, Allyson.” He cleared his throat awkwardly before asking a question. “How long have you known my son, Allyson.”

I shook my head. It was still so odd, hearing someone say “my son” in reference to Peter.

“It seems like ages. He stumbled into the diner where I worked one day, and then he kept coming back on a daily basis.” He chuckled.

“You two remind me of Meredith and myself.”

Seriously, was this, like, the theme of the day or something?

“I’d be careful about that topic around Peter,” I cautioned. “She’s still a sore spot.”

“Then that’s just one more thing we have in common.”

He and Peter had that same sad look.


	7. Chapter 7

The surface of Ego’s planet looked like the inside of a body, consisting mostly of red land masses. Everyone had gathered up their things as soon as Mantis had warned us that we would be there shortly, and I chose not to interrupt Peter as he nodded his head to the beat of some song he was listening to on his Walkman. Not to mention that I was still upset about earlier, and wasn’t sure if I’d be able to directly face him for a little bit. Gamora smiled at me and offered a side-hug before Ego and Mantis led the four of us onto a platform that started to float, and went through the ship as the front materialized. Everything looked so solid, and yet it could somehow just turn to liquid at will.

Diamond waterfalls spilled from multi-colored rock caves down into glass lakes and rivers. Lush fields of grasses and flowers thrived beneath us, almost seeming to dance in the wind. Trees larger than those I had seen on any other planet reached out to touch the ribbons of colors wrapped around the bright blue sky. I smiled as I took a breath of fresh air, staring at the painting I had been sucked into.

“Welcome, everyone, to my world.” I watched as rainbow bubbled drifted by.

“Wow. You have your own planet?” Ego was clearly impressing his son, based on the breathy awe in his voice.

“Come on. No larger than your Earth’s moon.”

“Humility. I like it. I, too, am extraordinarily humble.” I snickered at the juxtaposition in Drax’s statement.

Gamora smiled as she reached up to run her hand to glide her hand through the air next to a bubble, while Drax directly poked one and started to laugh.

Before us was a large palace, built from gold and jewels that caught the light in a perfect was that made it look as though they weren’t real. There were three large fountains in front of it spitting liquid crystal.

Suddenly, my snake ring seemed kind of cheap. But I still loved it more than anything else I owned.

A white bridge formed for us to cross, and the four of us followed behind Mantis as Ego. I got slightly distracted by my own confusion as I looked at the largest fountain to see circles of fish turning endlessly.

“You own a planet and can destroy two dozen spaceships without a suit. What are you, exactly?”

Leave it to Gamora to address the elephant in the room.

“I’m what’s called a Celestial, sweetheart.”

We all stopped, awed by the same thing. A Celestial? I mean, that would make sense, considering what Nova Prime had said about Peter’s genealogy, but still… it was almost unbelievable.

“A Celestial, like a god?” Ego and Mantis stopped so that he could explain.

“Small ‘g’, son. At least on the days I’m feeling humble as Drax.” He resumed his steps, and I nudged Peter to move, knowing he wouldn’t get any more answers if he didn’t keep moving.

The ceilings on the inside of the palace towered far above us, adorned in gold and silver. Several white orbs floated on either side, their purpose yet to be explained. Windows allowed natural light to filter in, but that somehow made the room seem more ominous.

“Whoa!”

“I don’t know where I came from exactly.” The first orb had a brain in it that looked to be made of glass, and it hit me that these were probably to help Ego tell his story. “First thing I remember is flickering… adrift in the cosmos utterly… and entirely alone. Over millions of years, I learned to control the molecules around me. I grew smarter and stronger. And I continued building from there… layer by layer… the very planet you walk on now.”

“Whoa.”

“But I wanted more,” he continued. “I desired… meaning. ‘There must be some life out there in the universe, besides just me,’ I thought. And so, I set myself the task of finding it. I created what I imagined biological life to be like, down to the most minute detail.

“Did you make a penis?”

I scoffed at Drax’s _too_ personal question, and the three of us turned to make disgusted faces at him.

“Dude!” Peter cried. It would make sense that he was the most weirded-out out of all of us.

“What is wrong with you?” I questioned.

“If he is a planet, how could he make a baby with your mother? He would smush her!” Peter moved his hands around awkwardly, clasping and unclasping them before explaining.

“I don’t need to hear how my parents…” He paused and gestured his hands to indicate he didn’t want to finish the sentence.

“Why? My father would tell the story of impregnating my mother every winter solstice.” I grimaced.

“That’s disgusting.”

“It was beautiful.” Drax sounded offended at Peter’s disgust. “You Earthers have hang-ups.”

“And we’re doing just fine,” I sighed, crossing my arms.

“Yes, Drax, I got a penis.”

“Ha! Thank you!”

“It’s not half bad.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose before throwing up that hand. How had things gotten to this point?

“I’ve also got pain receptors, and a digestive system, and all the accompanying junk. I wanted to experience what it truly meant to be human… as I set out amongst the stars… until I found what I sought. Life. I was not alone in the universe after all.”

Ego went quiet, staring at the image of him looking down at the first life form he had ever found, a sad and lonely look in his eyes. He was contemplating something, I could tell, and by the looks of it, so was Peter.

“When did you meet my mother?”

There is was.

Ego turned to look back at his son, his facial expression now nostalgic.

“Now long after.”

Another orb opened to reveal the image of a younger Ego embracing a blonde woman- whom I assumed was Meredith- from behind.

“It was with Meredith that I first experienced love.”

The image changed to them kissing.

“I… called her my river lily. And from that love, Peter… you.”

I wanted to reach out and hold his hand as a tearful expression crossed his face. Something powerful overtook him whenever his mother was mentioned, making it clear to me just how close they had been. I guess I had hoped as the years went along that I’d be able to fill that role with kids of my own, but that dream was starting to fade father and farther away.

“I have searched for you for so long. And when I heard of a man from Earth… who held an Infinity Stone in his hand without dying, I knew you must be the son of the woman I loved.”

I took in a breath to keep myself from getting choked up, for multiple reasons. Meredith’s life had been cut short, and I’d never seen the ripples beyond Peter before. Granted, I hadn’t known her in the first place, but the way the ones who did know her talked about her told me she’d been an easy woman to love.

The other reason… was that I knew I’d never have that same love Ego and Meredith had had with the person I loved.

“If you loved her, why did you leave her?” Peter asked, his voice weak. Ego hesitated and cast his eyes downward, before looking at the rest of us.

“Let’s… talk about this somewhere else.”

Ego started to walk away, but hesitated when he noticed Peter wasn’t following. Instead, his son was staring at the image of his mother and his father, his eyes almost looking as though they were calculating something. Suddenly, he turned and looked me dead in the eyes, a serious expression on his face.

“Allyson…”

Out of nowhere, I felt afraid. My heart started racing, but in the kind of way that makes you feel like crap.

“Uh… you should go with your dad,” I rambled awkwardly. “We- we’ll talk later.”

He looked defeated as he turned and followed Ego, and for a moment, I felt bad. And it only got worse when Gamora urged Drax and Mantis outside and shoved me as soon as the doors were closed.

“Do you not know how to take a hint?” I crossed my arms and turned away from her.

“What difference does it make?”

“He was going to tell you he loves you. Did you not see the way he looked at you?”

“I know exactly what he was going to say, Gamora! But do you know what I was thinking at the same time? I was thinking about my own parents, I was thinking about how they abandoned me, each other, how Ego abandoned Meredith. I can’t help but think that it would only be a matter of time before Peter abandoned me as well!”

“And you don’t think he’s feeling the same this? It was his father who abandoned his mother.” I threw my hands up.

“Well what more do you expect me to say, Gamora? That I think things could really work out between him and I? That’ll we’ll have a life where we can finally settle down and have a family? That we’ll grow old together, die together? That’s not how the world works, Gamora. People lose more than they gain.”

“I know what it feels like to lose someone you love, Allyson.”

“Yeah, I know, your mother, too.”

“I really think you should give Quill a chance.”

“Trust me, Gamora, I would love to. I would love nothing more, but I’m just too afraid of being left.”

I choked back sobs I didn’t even know had been threatening me in the first place.

“Sorry,” I whispered. “I didn’t mean to get hysterical on you.”

She hugged me close against her, something I didn’t take for granted. She smiled at me as soon as the embrace was over, but kept an arm around my shoulder and led me out to where she had shoved Mantis and Drax.

“Let’s get our rooms. I think some of us need a nap.”

I laughed as she pushed open the doors, but that joy was short-lived by Mantis’ next words.

“Drax? There’s something I must tell you.”

She stopped as soon as she noticed Gamora and I, and suspicion began to rise in me.

“What’s going on?”

“This gross bug lady is my new friend.”

“I’m learning many things, like I’m a pet and ugly.”

I furrowed my brow. Had Drax seriously told her that?

“You’re not ugly. Drax!”

“What are you talking about?” he protested.

“Mantis, can you show us where we’ll be staying?”

She nodded and started to lead us around the other side of the large building just as the sun was starting to set. I looked around, and was just now noticing how completely barren this place was. There were plants everywhere, but no other animals.

“Why are there no other beings on this planet?” I asked Mantis.

“The planet is Ego. A dog would not invite a flea to live on his back.”

Her statement was contradictory to her very existence on this planet.

“And you’re not a flea?”

“I am a flea with a purpose. I help him sleep.”

That was the other thing bothering me. People who need help sleeping at night typically aren’t innocent. I stepped in front of Mantis to keep her from advancing.

“What _were_ you going to say to Drax before we walked out?”

Her eyes went wide and she whimpered, looking down at her feet before brushing past me.

“Nothing. Your quarters are this way.”

I shot Gamora and Drax a look before turning to follow her.


	8. Chapter 8

The rooms were absolutely stunning. A queen-sized bed was pushed up against the wall, covered in elaborately embroidered, cream-colored sheets and blankets. The walls had delicate gold curly ques dancing on their white surfaces, and a golden chandelier hung from the ceiling. To top it all off, there was a golden couch and two matching chairs, complete with creamy cushions.

It was a shame, because this was almost romantic.

Peter came into the room just as I was waking up from a short nap. He walked through the threshold and shut the double doors behind him quietly, probably still thinking I was asleep. I rolled over and watched as he set his bag down on the floor, sat on the couch, and slipped on the headphones for his Walkman. I waited a few moments, smiling as I watched him nod to the music, before I sat up and moved to the edge of the bed.

“Did you get the answers you were looking for?”

He quickly slipped the headphones off and looked at me with surprise, but after a few seconds, it melted into that affectionate smile.

“Yeah. Turns out he has to come back here so his body doesn’t wither up.” I nodded and clasped my hands. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Oh, no, you’re fine. I got up right before you came in.”

He stood up and came over to sit next to me on the bed, leaving the Walkman on the table in front of the couch. He hesitated for a few seconds, before wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me closer to him. The exhaustion of the day was starting to hit me as the golden hour dusted over us, and I leaned my head against his chest with a big sigh. There was silence between us, nothing needed to be said. But as we sat there, everything that had happened today started running through my mind, and soon, Peter’s steady heartbeat was no longer comforting. This place wasn’t safe, there was something off. It had seemed like a paradise at first, but there’s always a flaw hiding underneath perfection.

I had to contact Rocket and have him come get us.

Without warning, I pushed myself out of Peter’s arms and fished around in my bag until I found the transmitter I had stashed in there. I pushed the button and waited for the beep, then spoke into the device.  
“Rocket, are you there?”

I got no response. I thought maybe the signal was being jammed, so I stepped out onto our room’s balcony and waited a little bit before trying again. Peter had followed me out, and decided to take in the view while playing a slow song on his Walkman.

“So I guess this could all be mine someday,” he mused.

I pressed the button and tried contacting Rocket again.

“Rocket? Rocket, are you there?” I only got static.

Just as I was starting to get frustrated, two hands gently placed themselves on my forearms, and I could feel body heat radiating from behind me. My heart rate started to go up, but I had to stay focused on what was going on here.

“What are you doing, Peter?”

He shifted his body to the other side and pulled me closer against him.

“Dance with me.”

“I’m not going to dance with you,” I huffed.

“This is Sam Cooke…” He removed the transmitter from my hands and set it down on the chair out on the balcony. “...one of the greatest Earth singers of all time.”

As he pulled me by my hands to the middle of the sun’s spotlight, I sighed and caved. I knew he wouldn’t give up on getting me to dance with him, so it was better to just go with it. And, I would be lying if I said I didn’t _want_ to dance with him. I rested one of my hands on his shoulder, and kept the other in his while the two of us swayed to the beat. My heart jumped as he leaned a little closer to me, then spun me away and pulled me back in. A smile surfaced on my face, matching the glow on his face.

“You’re so different when it’s just the two of us,” he sighed, running his eyes all over my face.

“If you ever tell anyone about this… I will kill you.”

“When are we gonna do something about this unspoken thing between us?”

My insides lurched again. It was inevitable that I would dread this conversation, but why couldn’t I just suck it up and admit that I liked him?

“What unspoken thing?”

“This… _Cheers,_ Sam and Diane…” I raised an eyebrow. This was probably some Terran thing, but it was one he’d failed to tell me about. “...a guy and a girl on a TV show who dig each other… but never say it because if they do, the ratings would go down sort of thing.”

I scoffed. That wasn’t the reason I refused to confess what I was feeling.

“There’s no unspoken thing,” I denied.

“Well, it’s a catch-22, because if you said it, then it would be spoken, and you would be a liar. So by not saying it… you are telling the truth, and admitting that there is.”

I couldn’t believe this. After all of these years of respecting me, he was suddenly talking like all those men that would come into that diner and harass me. What made him think he had the right to talk to me like this, especially when there were bigger things at stake.

“No, that’s not what I…” I shoved myself out of his arms. “What we _should_ be discussing now is… something about this place. It doesn’t feel right.” I picked up the transmitter again and tried to keep myself from exploding.

“What are you talking about?” He stepped closer to me. “You’re the one who wanted me to come here!”

“That girl Mantis… she’s afraid of something.”

“Why are you trying to take this away from me?” he demanded. Things were starting to escalate, and it was only a matter of time before we were both just yelling at each other. But I had to do my best to convince him that we weren’t safe here.

“I’m not trying-”

“He’s my father. He’s blood.”

“You have blood on Earth, and you never wanted to return there.”

“Again, _you_ made me come here! And Earth? Earth is place where my mother died in front of me.”

I shot up from the couch and pointed out the window.

“No, it’s because that place is real, and this is a fantasy.”

“This is real! I’m only half human, remember?”

“Coming from experience, _that’s_ the half I’m worried about.” At first, I had been shoving things into my bag, but at this point, I wasn’t sure what the hell I was doing.

“I get it. You’re upset… because you’re worried that I’m just going to abandon you and stay here, and force you to go back with the others.”

Even though he had me completely figured out, I wasn’t about to show him that he’d struck the nerve.

“That doesn’t even make sense! And even if it was true, what does that have to do with what we’re talking about here?” I had to switch gears back to our issue. “I haven’t been able to reach Rocket. I’m gonna go outside, and try to get a signal.”

“You know what? This is not _Cheers_ after all!” I started to storm toward the door. “This is whatever the show is where one person is willing to open themselves up to new possibilities, and the other person is a jerk who doesn’t trust anybody.” I seethed as I glared at him.

“I’ve trusted you for five years! Is that not enough proof for you?”

“It’s a show that doesn’t exist. That’s why it would get zero ratings!” I whipped around to glare at him.

“I don’t know what _Cheers_ is!”

“I finally found my family. Don’t you understand that?”

And that was the second time he hurt me that day. It suddenly became clear to me just what we were, what _I_ was, to him. It was certainly nothing important, clearly not anything worth sticking around for. I had so desperately hoped it wouldn’t be true, and the fact that it now was hurt in a different way than anything else had.

“I thought you already had.”


	9. Chapter 9

My rapid breaths turned into gasps as I spun on my heel and raced outside, running until I couldn’t see the palace behind me anymore, and I slumped down onto the ground. All the fight I had was gone now, and I was left feeling hurt and deflated. He’d seen right through me, and done nothing to try and re-assure me that he’d always be here, instead choosing to just make the nightmare a reality.

I sniffled and wiped my eyes as Gamora sat down beside me, wrapping an arm around me and patting one of my arms. We were trying to just sit in silence, but as the wind blew, it rattled the bulbs of the tall grasses around us together, creating an irritating, scratching noise. I was starting to get irritated, and as though reading my mind, Gamora pulled out her sword and cut the bulbs off the plants.

“Thanks,” I muttered. “Damn it.”

“Do you want to talk about what happened?”

Just as I opened my mouth, I heard a strange, mechanical noise coming from behind us. Gamora and I glanced at each other before standing up and looking up toward where the sun was. Faintly, in the distance, there was a ship approaching us, and at first, it was hard to tell where it was coming from. But as soon as it got closer, I was able to recognize the design, and things only got worse when I saw who was piloting it. Gamora and I turned to run as shots hit the ground near our feet. We both jumped down the side of a cliff just as the ship swooped down to try and crush us.

“Psychopath!”

Nebula looped the ship back around again and fired at Gamora and I before we had barely gotten up, forcing us to dash straight for the cave nearby. She flew over us long enough for Gamora and I to catch our breath, then she shot straight through the cave. We jumped down again, and she finally crashed the ship, causing it to go aflame. Thinking quickly, Gamora was somehow able to pick up one of the guns that had come off the ship and hotwired it. She screamed as repeated shots fired at the windshield of the ship until it fell down into the cavern below. The two of us stared down at her as Nebula tried her best to escape from the flames and wreckage.

“Come on.”

I jumped down and stretched one of my arms up to catch myself, then slowly lowered my body down to stand in front of the ship. Nebula was desperately fighting to free herself from the wreckage, but the roof had collapsed down on top of her, and was proving to be immobile from her current point.

“Gamora…”

I nodded my head in Nebula’s direction, and she didn’t even waste a second running over and prying the heavy metal off of her sister. Unfortunately, the fire was spreading quickly, and just as I was reaching out to help her, the flames tapped the fuel, and a violent explosion sent the three of us flying back. My head slammed against the rock and red sand, and I groaned in pain as I sat up, holding where I’d been hit. The injury pulsated while the three of us sat up, but I wasn’t given time to nurse it. Nebula snapped her mechanical parts back into place, and barely gave her sister a second before she jumped on her and clamped a blue and purple hand around Gamora’s green throat.

“Are you kidding me?” Gamora snapped.

She then flipped her sister over and managed to pin her down for a moment, before Nebula gathered her strength again and threw Gamora off of her. She quickly wrapped around and gripped her sister’s throat just as he lunged at her, holding out her knife in the other hand. This had gone from just a fight, to one of my teammates and closest friends possibly getting killed. Acting fast, I shot my arms out from where I was and managed to push the two of them off each other. Gamora gasped desperately for air, while Nebula glared at me for a second, before focusing back on the reason she had come to Ego’s Planet in the first place.

“I win,” she declared.

The ship continued to burn behind us, creating an intense heat down in the caverns.

“I win. I bested you in combat.”

“No. I saved your life,” Gamora corrected. “And Allyson stepped in before you had the chance to ‘win’.”

“Well, you were stupid enough to let me live.”

“You let me live!”

“I don’t need you always trying to beat me!”

“I’m not the one that just flew across the universe just because I wanted to win.”

“Do not tell me what I want,” Nebula barked.

“I don’t need to tell you what you want! It’s obvious!”

“You were the one who wanted to win. And I just wanted a sister!”

The three of us fell silent upon that confession. Gamora and I adapted shocked expressions, while Nebula reeled back, not expecting to go that deep. I could have never imagined Nebula feeling anything other than rage, and while she still definitely was filled with it, now that emotion had a purpose to me.

“You were all I had. But you were the one that needed to win.”

 _You were all I had…_ Those words struck something in me, and brought my mind back to that earlier argument. Peter was the only person I’d ever had, someone that kept me going, even before I cared about him the way I do now. I had just walked away from him in the middle of a fight that we, honestly, probably needed to have.

I sighed. I couldn’t just give up on him.

“Thanos pulled my eye from my head, and my brain from my skull, and my arm from my body… because of you.”

I wanted to give them time to talk things out, but… I knew I had to get back to Peter and finish what we had started, even if it meant losing him.

“Come on, we should find a way out of here.”

I helped Gamora back onto her feet, and her and Nebula followed me deeper into the cave. The glow of the flaming ship faded, and the world below transitioned into blackness, before a blue glow started to guide our way from the distance.

“What is that?”

I glanced at Gamora, wary, before choosing to continue forward. Maybe this was the way out.

Much to my horror, the exit came with a gruesome scene.

I pressed my hand against my mouth to try and hide my gasp as I stared at the mountain in front of us. But this wasn’t just any mountain, no. It was comprised of solid pieces of white, the ones near the base starting to crumble away from having been there for, supposedly, eternities. The bones reached all the way to the hole that allowed the blue light down. Branches of some twisted tree pulsated with blue light, almost looking like signals were going through neurons to the brain.

There was only one way that these bones could have gotten here…

“Oh, my God…”

“We need to get off this planet.”

“I’m not going anywhere without Peter,” I declared.

“Allyson, we have to go. Besides, isn’t Peter happy here?” I could tell Gamora was trying to get the words she wanted out of me, but at this point, I didn’t care.

“He might be, but I’m not risking him dying to let him spend time with Ego.” I turned to look at Nebula and Gamora. “We have to get out through that hole in the ceiling up there and get back to where everyone is. I have some questions…”

Without another second wasted, I shot myself up through the light in the ceiling and let me feet touch the ground before reaching down to pull up the sisters, who had climbed the pile of bones so that it would be less of a distance for me to lift two bodies. Desperate, I sprinted toward the large palace as soon as they were up with me.

“Allyson, do you have a plan?” I glanced back at Gamora with an awkward smile.

“I have the start of one.”

“You’re exactly like Quill…” she muttered. “What do you have?”

“I’m going to get some answers out of Mantis.”


	10. Chapter 10

She was talking to Drax when I stormed in with fury spilling out my eyes. I couldn’t control myself as I grabbed onto her throat and pressed her against the wall, holding her high above my head.

“Who are you people?” I demanded. “ _What is this place_?” There was fear in her big, black eyes as she looked down at me.

“Allyson, let her go!” Drax shouted.

“The bodies in the caverns… _who are they_?”

“You are scared.”

The tips of her antennae glowed, and all of a sudden, I lost control of myself and dropped her down. Mantis gasped and coughed while I stared at my shaking hands. She had just used that ability she had to alter emotions, but her peaceful route wasn’t going to get anything done.

“What did she do to me?”

“She already told me everything.” We all looked toward Mantis.

“The bodies…” Mantis crossed her arms against her chest as she stood. “...are his children.”

I looked at her with alarm as my brain shot into overdrive. Ego had killed his own children… for what purpose? And did that mean that Peter was next? I couldn’t let that happen…

“We need to find Peter now, and get off this damn planet.”

For once, I was putting my foot down and asserting myself.

“Ego will have won him to his side by now.”

“Then we just go.” I glared at Nebula.

“No!”

“He’s our friend,” Gamora finished.

“All any of you do is yell at each other. You are not friends.”

“You’re right.” I looked at Drax with a shocked expression. How could he think that, after these two years? “We’re family. We leave no one behind.” He looked at Nebula. “Except, maybe you.”

“Oh, my God.” Nebula shook her head as she looked around at us, and I couldn’t blame her. She had clearly had it up to here with our stupidity.

“I’m going to try to get through to Rocket, you guys get ready to leave.”

I sprinted back to Peter and my room and dug around in my bag until I managed to get my hand around the transmitter and yank it out. A few things scattered to the floor as I pushed down the button and started to yell into the microphone while sprinting back to the others.

“Rocket?” I shouted as I looked at Drax. “Rocket?”

“ _Allyson?”_

“Finally! Rocket?”

“ _Keep that transmitter nearby so I can find you,”_ he instructed. “ _We’re in an old piece of construction equipment Yondu once used to slice open the Bank of A’askavaria.”_

“Ego’s unhinged,” I informed him. The others were behind me, scrambling to gather everything up.

“ _I know. Get ready.”_

“Got it.”

I hastily threw my bag over my shoulder and rushed out to meet the others. All we could do now was wait for Rocket to come down and get us. It would take too long to try to get to Ego’s palace on foot, so there was no point in trying to start. Instead, I looked around at everyone, noticing how different their expressions were. Mantis was frightened- not that this was anything new-, while Nebula, Drax, and Gamora had varying levels of stoicness. Nebula was made of stone, choosing to not even look out the window and watch for Rocket and, apparently, Yondu. Drax’s eyes were primarily transfixed on the floor, but I would catch them flicker up to each of us every now and then, almost as if he were checking to make sure we were okay. Gamora was much harder to crack, but I could see that she was worried. Despite the gravity of the situation, I couldn’t help but smile at her.

“This is taking too long…” We were all looking at Gamora now. “We need to start going on foot.”

I held back the urge to laugh at her suggestion.

“Gamora, we won’t make it in time. Trying to get there without a ship-”

“What’s more important to you? Waiting to get there with a large ship, or saving Quill faster than we are right now?”

“Well, if the ship is going to help us save Peter faster-”

“Come on.”

Before I could protest, she grabbed my wrist and started dragging me out of the building where guest quarters were, the rest of the group following in suit. Everyone started to run as soon as we were out in the open field, and much to my shock, the palace was getting closer and closer as we continued to run. I could feel myself getting short of breath, but I tried not to let that stop me, especially because it would be embarrassing to fall behind.

It’s not my fault I’m the only human against a robot, two of the strongest beings in the galaxy, and a girl with who-knows-how-many powers.

I skidded to a stop and covered my eyes as blue light burst from the windows on the palace. My chest began to rise and fall even faster as I thought through the possibilities of what that could have been. None of them were good, and all of them involved Peter getting hurt somehow.

The ground below us trembled in fear as we approached the palace doors. Without a second thought, Drax kicked them down, and a new horror presented itself. Ego was standing in the center of the room with his eyes closed and arms outstretched, while his skin started to glow that same blue that had just flashed moments ago. Peter was suspended in the air by some strange, electric tentacles run straight through his body, and I could see the veins prominent through his paling skin. My stomach lurched as a single word threw itself out of me.

_“Peter!”_

I was just about to reach out and do… something (sure, I hadn’t completely thought it through, but there wasn’t time for that in moments like this), a large, worn-down ship shot through the stained glass window on the wall and crashed straight down on Ego. The blue tentacle gently lowered Peter closer to the ground before dropping him on it and disappearing. As soon as I was sure we were in the clear, I ran straight for him, while the others made a beeline for the inside of the ship. The doors opened, and I could see Groot waving at us.

“Out of the way, dumber, smaller Groot!” Drax shouted as I met Peter and helped him up off the ground. Somehow, he’d made a pretty quick recovery, and aside from having a little trouble walking, he seemed to be back to normal.

“I told you something didn’t feel right,” I grumbled as I gripped his wrist.

“‘I told you so.’ Just what I need to hear right now,” he shot back.

“Well, I came back, didn’t I?”

We both flinched as a piece of the ceiling fell down behind us.

“Because there’s an unspoken thing.”

I rolled my eyes. This was _not_ the time for this sort of discussion.

“There is no unspoken thing,” I denied yet again.

“I’m just going to ask you to refer back to the balcony conversation.”

“I swear to God, if we survive this, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

“That’s what you always say.”


	11. Chapter 11

I helped him up onto the ship before jumping on myself. He got a good look around, and immediately picked up on the new face none of us had expected to see when she first showed up.

“What’s Smurfette doing here?”

I did my best to suppress a smirk.

“Whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home,” she answered coldly.

“Shouldn’t have come here in the first place, then…” I muttered as I looked around at the old hunk-of-junk we were now on.

“She tried to murder me!” Rocket accused.

“I saved you, you stupid fox!”

“He’s not a fox,” Gamora corrected.

“I am Groot.”

“I’m not a raboon, either.”

“I am Groot.”

“‘Raccoon’. Whatever.”

Blue tentacles shot up from underneath the ornate floors of the palace and swung around, looking as though they were trying to get a feel for things.

This had to end, and soon. Otherwise, we’d never leave this place.

“How do we kill a Celestial?” I was more addressing Peter, over everyone else, but if anyone else knew, I was all ears.

“There’s a center to him. His brain, his soul, whatever it is. Some sort of protective shell.”

I followed him up the ladder to the cockpit of the ship.

“It’s in the caverns, below the surface.”

The tentacles were now wrapped around the ship and tried to pull it down. Peter and I popped up to find Yondu, as I had expected, fiddling with the controls to get us out of here.

“Yondu?” Peter turned around and shot me a confused look, while I just offered an awkward smile.

“Right. Probably should have mentioned that…”

Peter fell forward into the co-pilot’s seat as the ship started to fall beneath the floor. Yondu tried to break from their grasp by shooting the ship forward, but they were stronger than us, and we ended up just lurching back.

“Thrusters are out,” Yondu informed us as Peter punched away at controls on the dashboard. I decided to make myself useful, so I started flipping some familiar levers by Peter’s side.

“Guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid. Otherwise, you’d have delivered me to this maniac.”

Peter seemed to sense my confusion. What did Yondu have to do with any of this?

“There’s a lot we have to catch up on.”

“Looking forward to it,” I stated as I leaned against his chair.

“You still reckon that’s the reason I kept you around, you idiot?” Yondu snapped.

“That’s what you told me, you old doofus.”

“Once I figured out what happened to them other kids… I wasn’t just gonna hand you over.”

I’d been watching Peter unsuccessfully try to hotwire something that would likely jumpstart the ship, and while I’d observed, I’d figured out how he needed to connect the wires. I pushed past him and moved his hands aside.

“I’ve got this.” I picked up a few white wires and started to loop them back through while Peter and Yondu continued their spat.

“You said you were gonna eat me.”

“That was being funny!”

“Not to me!”

“You people have issues,” Rocket called up from where he was sitting. I removed one of my hands from my work and pointed in his direction.

“What he said.”

“Of course I have issues.”

There was an overwhelming blue glow from outside the windshield, compelling me to look. When I did, there was a body that looked as though it were just forming with glowing eyes let out a horrifying shout, causing me to jump.

“That’s my freaking father!”

Adrenaline pushed me to work faster, and a spark jumped out at me as I connected the last wire.

“Thrusters are back up!” I shouted, standing up and re-assuming my position behind Peter’s chair.

Peter and Yondu steered the ship straight through the giant body- which I assumed to be Ego, before bursting through the window and taking a straight shot down. I gripped tightly onto the headrest and gravity kept me glued against the seat. The ship was moving so fast that I involuntarily closed my eyes, fearful of a bad end result.

“We should be going up!”

“We can’t! Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him. Rocket!”

“Got it!”

I could hear the little metal balls on the side of the ship rolling down to the front of the ship, and three sets of bright, red lights cut open the surface of the planet. Rocket blasted away at whatever rock formation was in the way as we shot through tunnels to the center of the planet.

“So, we’re saving the galaxy again?”

I couldn’t help but smile.

“I guess.”

“Awesome! We’re really gonna be able to jack up our prices if we’re two-time galaxy savers.”

I almost wanted to yell at Rocket, but I held myself back. That was just his mindset, and if I had dealt with it before, I could _certainly_ deal with it now.

“I seriously can’t believe that’s where you mind goes.”

Besides, Peter had done it for me.

“It was just a random thought, man. I thought we were friends. Of course I care about the planets, and the buildings, and all the animals on the planets.”

I paused for a second to process what he had said. He missed something.

“And the people.”

“Meh.”

“Okay, hello? More pressing issues here than why Rocket doesn’t want to save people. We have to get to the center of this planet and kill Ego _now_.”

The ship had stopped bouncing back and forth now, and it appeared to be just a straight shot to the center from here, save for a few more stalactites and stalagmites. Questions started popping back into my head, and I figured Peter couldn’t have been that distracted right now.

“Tell me why Ego wants you here?”

“He needs my genetic connection to the light to destroy the universe. He tried to teach me how to control the power.”

A million new thoughts were racing through my head.

“So, could you?”

“A little. I made a ball.”

My thoughts had been narrowed down to one as I shot him that ‘are you kidding me?’ look.

“A ball?”

“I thought as hard as I could. It was all that I could come up with.”

“You ‘thought’?” Yondu interjected.

“Honestly, I’m not surprised.”

“You think when I make this arrow fly, I use my head?”

“Quite frankly, I don’t think you ever use your-”

My head slammed against the chair as we burst through the protective core around the center of the planet.

“Ow."


	12. Chapter 12

The center of Ego’s Planet looked as though it were made from neurons, veins, and muscle, but they looked as though their primary composers were rock and metal. But none of that was important. We were staring right at the important part: a glowing, blue center to the planet, not without its protections.

“Whoa,” I whispered, my eyes wide as I looked around at everything.

“There,” I heard Matis call from below. “That’s Ego’s core.”

It made sense. Upon getting closer, I could see that its appearance replicated that of the surface of the planet. I squinted at it and tried to get a better assessment of the material.

“That ore is thick, Rocket.”

“I got it covered.”

The silver laser balls scurried along the side of the ship and met down in its little well, all to form one giant, powerful laser. It quickly started to melt away the material.

“Keep it steady,” he ordered Peter and Yondu.

“We drill into the center, we kill him.”

The orange and gold glow of the melting ore was almost mesmerizing, but after staring at it for a few seconds, I had to look away to stop the burning sensation in my eyes.

 _“Captain?”_ The voice coming to us from the speakers was broken and fuzzy, but I could tell it was Kraglin from the way he said that word.

“What is it, Kraglin?”

“ _Hey, remember that Ayesha chick?”_

My head snapped to the speaker box and Yondu. Ayesha as in… the High Priestess of the Sovereign? How did they know her?

“Yeah, why?” Yondu looked over toward us, and his expression changed. “Oh, hell!”

The Sovereign fleet was heading straight for us. I groaned and shook my head as I stood up. These guys really didn’t give up, and it was finally at the point where it was an annoyance, rather than anything else. Peter pulled the ship back and swung it around as Rocket shut off the laser, and we did our best to outrun them in order to buy us some time.

“Why aren’t you firing the lasers?” Peter climbed out of his seat and headed toward the ladder. I was going to stay behind and help Yondu, but he motioned for me to go, so I followed Peter down.

“They blew out the generator.” I could hear him scampering around down there. “I think I packed a small detonator.”

I jumped down the rest of the ladder, right behind Peter. Rocket was holding up those Anulax batteries he had stolen with a smirk on his face, while Nebula just stared down at him. The others were nowhere to be seen, and based on the gaping hole in the side of the ship, I would have to assume they had fallen, or jumped, out.

“Is that thing strong enough to kill Ego?” Peter asked, referencing the detonator.

“If it is, it’ll cause a chain reaction throughout his entire nervous system.”

“Meaning what?”

“The entire planet will explode. We’ll have to get out of here fast.”

Peter reached back and hit the aero-rig on his back, then walked over to the wall and grabbed one for me. He firmly stuck it to my back and activated it.

“I’ve rigged a timer.”

Finally, Peter pushed the button to activate his mask, and the three of us jumped out of the side of the ship and headed straight for the opening Rocket had made in Ego’s core. The Sovereign Fleet was zipping all around us, and I narrowly avoided getting shot before we shot through the hole and landed on solid ground. There was some sort of squishy quality to the ground, which didn’t make much sense, considering the ground looked as though it were made of rock. My feet became unsteady as the world around us suddenly shook with a violent force. Rocket turned on his flashlight and looked around at our environment. Everything was blocked by the grey and green metal.

“The metal’s too thick,” Rocket sighed. “For the bomb to work, we’d actually need to place it on Ego’s core. And our fat butts ain’t gonna fit through that tiny hole.”

“Well…”

The two of us followed Peter’s gaze to Groot, who was picking at a leaf on his arm and staring off into the distance.

“That’s a terrible idea.”

“Which is the only kind of idea we have left.”

I shifted from one foot to the other and focused my eyes on the tiny, glowing holes that blocked our way. This really _was_ a terrible idea, especially considering Groot’s capacity for not following directions at this age. If I really compressed myself, I might be able to get my arm through there and place the bomb, but there was no guarantee that it was going to end up in the right place. I looked between Peter and Rocket with a glare, and it took them a moment to notice I was staring daggers at them.

“Ya know, you’re ten times more intimidating with the two different eye colors. That could seriously be an advantage for us in business.”

“Are you kidding me?” I groaned, resisting the urge to punt him like a football. “Do you just see everyone around you as some sort of tool in your shady business negotiations?”

“Hey, they’re not shady anymore.”

“That’s a blatant lie.”

“Is not,” he whined.

Peter jumped to my defense, “says the guy who stole batteries from the Sovereign.”

“I already told you my reasoning!”

“Oh, my God! Just get the bomb out of your bag and talk Groot through it.” The ground shook again, this time from a Sovereign blast. “Peter and I will help deal with those guys.”

With a grumble, Rocket slung Groot over his shoulder and snatched up his bag before taking both of them as deep into the tunnels as he could go. Peter whipped out both his blasters, but after looking at me, he extended an arm out to me and offered me one of his guns. Pretending to be offended, I raised an eyebrow at him and crossed my arms.

“What are you trying to say?” I joked.

“That I don’t want you to die?” His voice was muffled from behind his mask.

“Fair enough.”

I snatched it from him and smirked before the two of us jumped out and fired at one of the Sovereign ships coming right at us. Our blasts reached it before theirs could reach us, and as more and more Sovereign ships came in our direction, I could hear Rocket giving Groot instructions.

“All right, first you flick this switch, then this switch,” he explained. “That activates it. Then you push this button, which will give you five minutes to get out of there. Now, whatever you do, don’t push this button-”

“Allyson!”

I swung myself out of the way and shot at a Sovereign ship to destroy it.

“Thanks, Peter.”

I swung around and launched myself into the air to fire at another ship, and I could feel Peter slam against my back to fire at one that was coming from the opposite direction.

“Quit saving my ass,” I quipped. “I’m gonna have to owe you big time.”

“We’ll deal with that later.”

I rolled my eyes as I stretched to latch onto a ledge and shoot myself down, with Peter close in tow as we fired at more of the Sovereign vehicles and anxiously waited for Rocket to finish explaining things to Groot so that he could get out here and help us.

“No! That’s exactly what you just said!” I heard Rocket shout. “How is that even possible?”

Peter and I shot down yet another Sovereign ship, and I was starting to notice that they were getting overwhelming. We needed Rocket’s help _now_.

“Which button is the button you’re supposed to push? Point to it.”

“You holdin’ up okay?” Peter asked over the chaos.

“No!”

I whipped my head around and tried not to laugh at the perfect timing.

“Yeah, I’m good. Cover me.” He nodded and I turned all the way around to look down the hole we had made. Rocket was still crouched in front of Groot and the bomb, his efforts coming to no avail

“Hey, you’re making him nervous!” I chastised.

“Shut up and get me some tape!”

I wanted to shout at Rocket to correct himself so badly, but I knew now really wasn’t the time for that.

“Does anybody have any tape out there? I wanna put some tape over the death button.”

“I don’t have any tape. Let me check.” I turned around and faced Peter.

“You got any tape, Peter?” He looked at me for a split second before going back to shooting at the Sovereign.

“No!”

I sighed and wandered my eyes around again until I saw Yondu’s old ship fly over our heads.

“Yo, Yondu!” I shouted into my earpiece. “Do you have any-”

Suddenly, a Sovereign shot at the rocks behind me, and a few of them flew out and scratched up my shoulder. “Ah!” In response, Peter shot the ship, and pieces rained down on us as I spoke into my earpiece again. “Do you have any tape?”

“ _No,”_ he responded in that harsh voice. “ _Why the tell would I have tape?_ ”

I didn’t have time to answer that, and I had already spotted Gamora, Drax, and Mantis on the ground. Mantis was crouched, and had her hand over what looked like a pulsating vein, which I assumed was keeping Ego at bay for now.

“Gamora! Do you have any tape?” She looked up at me with a confused expression. “Tape!” She still didn’t get it. “Never mind.

I moved on to Drax.

“Drax, do you have any tape?” Thankfully, he heard me.

“Would Scotch tape work?” he yelled back.

“Yes, Scotch tape would work.”

“I don’t have Scotch tape?”

I rolled my eyes and shot at a ship Peter had somehow let slip by him.

“Then why did you ask me if Scotch tape would work, if you don’t have any?”

I groaned and didn’t wait for an answer, instead popping back around the corner to report back to Rocket.

“Nobody has any tape!” I shouted down the hole.

“Not a single person has tape?” He turned around and glared at me, flailing his arms wildly in frustration.

“Nope!”

“Did you ask Nebula?”

I hesitated. I honestly hadn’t even thought to ask Nebula, and in fact, I’d forgotten she was even a part of the team at the moment. I’d glossed over her, even though I was sure I had looked right at her. But I wasn’t about to admit that to Rocket, so I decided to lie instead.

“Yes.”

I was unbelievably unconvincing.

“Are you sure?”

“I asked Yondu and she was sitting next to him.”

“I knew you were lying!”

“You have priceless batteries and an atomic bomb in your bag!” I retorted. “If anybody’s gonna have tape, it’s you!”

I quickly turned and shot at a couple Sovereign ships flying side to side.

“That’s exactly my point! I have to do everything!”

“You are wasting a lot of time here!”

He shook his head as he turned around, then gasped. Groot was gone, and I thought I could vaguely see him running down into the tunnels carrying the bomb. Based on what I had been hearing, Groot didn’t understand which button he was supposed to push, and if he got through there and hit the wrong one, we were all going to die instantly.

“Well, shit.”

“Allyson!”

I followed Peter’s point to see all of the Sovereign ships now ganging up on Yondu and Nebula, the force of their blasts so intense that the ship started spinning and spiraling around. It was clear that things were out of their control at this point, and if we didn’t step in to help, they might not make it much longer.

“Got it. Let’s go.”

I closed my eyes and shot an arm out until I felt it wrap around something inside the ship, and considering I had never tested how far I could stretch before, this was pretty impressive. With my free arm, I stretched out to grab Peter’s waist and pull him in closer to me, and as soon as he was secured, I shot us forward and straight into the ship, somehow avoiding the fury of the Sovereign. The two of us took a tumble to the floor, and as I was pushing myself up, I looked out and saw that the Sovereign had stopped firing, Instead, a ship with the face of High Priestess Ayesha was glaring at Peter and I with a menacing smirk.

 _“Guardians…”_ Her voice was calm, condescending, and cocky. _“Perhaps it will provide you solace that your deaths are not without purpose. They will serve as a warning to all of those tempted with betraying us.”_

I could have sworn I heard the sphere scuttling across the outside of the ship, but with all this noise, I couldn’t be quite sure.

_“Don’t screw with the Sovereign.”_

They all immediately started firing as I shot myself up and looked around. There had to be something I could do to stop them, or to destroy all of their ships. But as I took in the desolate area we were in, my heart sank. There was nothing here, and no parts to repair the damaged ship with.

“Peter…”

Suddenly, every laser on the ship fired at maximum intensity, and the Sovereign ships all erupted into bright yellow and black clouds. I smirked as I watched the face of High Priestess Ayesha shift from that confident expression to one of horror seconds before her own ship was destroyed.

“Yes!”

My joy quickly left me, however, when a flaming piece of one of the ships skidded onto the floor and caused me to jump. Peter stood up, and the two of us looked down to see a piece of one of the Sovereign ships leaking fuel into a small line of fire that had somehow ignited in the rig of the ship.

“We’re gonna blow!”

The last thing I heard before the explosion was Yondu’s whistle.


	13. Chapter 13

“Allyson? Allyson, are you still with us?”

There was severe panic in Peter’s voice as I opened my eyes. He had me gripped tight against his waist, and he was looking down at me as though I’d never wake up. As soon as he caught my glance, his hardened and worried expression changed into a smile. At first, I smiled back, until I caught sight of Yondu behind us and started snickering. He was using his arrow to slowly drift down, and it had almost formed an umbrella shape. Peter looked over at him, too, and then started laughing.

“What?” Yondu asked in his harsh voice.

“You look like Mary Poppins.” I chuckled again. He really did.

“Is he cool?” Peter and I looked at each other with a smile. Both of us understood, but someone like Yondu hadn’t ever been exposed to the wonder that was Disney movies. My parents had shown me a few when I was really little, so at least I’d had some exposure.

“Hell yeah, he’s cool.” Yondu smirked happily.

“I’m Mary Poppins, y’all!”

I laughed hysterically until our feet touched the ground, and my body was turned to face Peter. He was still holding me flush against him, and I rested my hands against his arms. The two of us looked at each other with odd, affectionate smiles as the others moved to stand around us. Despite what he had been offered, what he could have had, he stuck by me. I wanted to think that I couldn’t understand it, but I knew exactly why. It was part of the reason I was smiling.

I sort of pushed myself away from Peter, but kept one hand on his arm as we all turned to defend Mantis. She was still crouched down with her hand on the pulsating vein, or possibly neuron, and the intense wind created from the explosion was throwing her hair back from her face. We looked like a team, right here in this moment, fighting to save the galaxy once again.

Suddenly, a chunk of metal came flying at Mantis and struck her side, knocking her to the ground with closed eyes.

“Mantis, look out!”

“Nice early warning system, Drax,” I deadpanned.

The blue light that was associated with Ego started to pulse back through the network, and the world around us seemed to spring to life once again. Rock started to crumble as the light glowed throughout the entire core of the planet, while Drax knelt down to check on Mantis.

“She’s just unconscious.”

“How long until the bomb goes off?” Peter questioned Rocket, approaching him with a determined step.

“In the unlikely event that Groot doesn’t kill us all, about six minutes,” he explained.

The rock above us gave way to create an opening for us. Sunlight shone down, the ray of hope we needed in this otherwise desolate situation.

“Kraglin, we need the quadrant for an extraction,” Yondu shouted into the comm piece in his coat. T-minus five minutes.”

“Somebody’s gotta be up top when Kraglin arrives. Drax, take Mantis.”

Peter removed the aero-rig from his back and slapped it onto Drax, immediately activating the rockets and shooting him and Mantis straight through the crack.

“Ow! My nipples!”

“Peter…” I looked at him without a way to escape.

“I’m going to need you to get us out of here when I’m done.”

“The hell are you going to do?” I don’t know why I bothered to ask. I already knew what he was thinking.

“You can’t be-”

The ground suddenly caved beneath me, and my heart leaped into my chest as I plummeted into the nothingness below.

“Allyson!” I heard Peter yell from above.

It took me a few seconds to be able to collect myself and think to stretch one of my arms out to help soften the blow. I managed to wrap my hand around rock that had yet to fall and lower myself down onto a piece of solid ground. Nebula and Gamora- who had, for some reason, followed me- weren’t so lucky, and instead shot straight past the ground I had landed on. Nebula reached up with her mechanical arm and managed to get a hold on the side of the rock, and catch her sister with the other hand to suspend them both above the abyss. Before I could reach down to help them up, Nebula flung her sister toward me with impressive strength, then climbed up herself. The two of them looked at each other with something that appeared to be affection for a second, before Nebula rolled her eyes.

“Get over it,” she scoffed.

“We need to get back up there,” I declared, looking up at the glowing blue high above us. “ _I_ have to get back up there.”

“Allyson, this isn’t your fight.” I knew Gamora was right, but I wasn’t about to leave him helpless.

“I don’t care. If something happens to him, I’d rather be there trying to prevent it than blame myself for not even helping him the moment things get rough.”

I didn’t give either of the women a chance to protest, and instead stretched up to a pillar of rock that I presumed Ego was moving, as it started to float up with what appeared to be no outside help. I looked up at where Peter was the last time I had seen him, and hoped he was still up there, and that Ego hadn’t done him in yet. I wasn’t going to let him take Peter away from us, not as long as I was alive.

There were two thuds beside me, and I looked to my left and right to see Nebula and Gamora beside me, looking in the same direction that I had been. That smile returned, until we were shot straight into the large piece of rock, and the three of us bounced off it.

“Shit…” I muttered. “That was so empowering for a second.”

Almost immediately, blue, glowing tentacles shot out from the ground, and I started to become buried under rock. I could feel my breath increasing as I started panicking, and one of the tentacles wrapped itself around my mouth, keeping me from making a sound. I started to thrash and fight against the overwhelming strength pinning me down, but Ego’s hold on me was making me feel sleepy. For once, the fight was starting to leave my body, and I started to contemplate giving up and just accepting what was happening to me. We couldn’t fight death, after all. Maybe it was just my time.

_“Hey, look your arms look so much better.”_

_I smiled at Peter as he rubbed my healing forearms with his thumbs. He had a proud look on his face as his eyes bounced from my arms to my eyes._

_“I’ve been using that cream… whatever it is, to get rid of the marks.”_

_“And there’s no new ones.” I clicked my tongue and started to twist back and forth on one of my feet._

_“Thanks to you.”_

_“No, this was both of us.” He ran his hands down my arm. “You didn’t cave. You didn’t give up.”_

_I don’t give up._

The rock around the three of us crumbled away, and I took a deep, gasping breath. My waist relaxed, my heart rate slowed, and I could feel my mind coming back to me. Peter must have defeated Ego, or at least beaten him enough to get out of here.

“Come on!”

I stretched myself up and grabbed onto different pillars of rock that had frozen in their movement, until the three of us were able to get out into the light. Kraglin’s ship was hovering just a few feet in front of us, waiting for everyone to be on so that we could go before the planet exploded. I decided to first help Nebula and Gamora up onto the ship, then stretched and got on myself. Mantis and Drax were the only others here, so I assumed we had to wait for everyone else. Mantis was still unconscious, so I leaned down and looked her over to try and make sure there was no damage we needed to be worried about. A large bruise was forming on her arm where she had been hit, but other than that, it seemed like she was okay.

“She probably just pushed herself too hard,” I told the others. “I think she’ll be fine when she wakes up.”

“What do you know about empaths?”

I felt a surge push me to my feet, and I glared head-on at Nebula as I spat words straight into her face.

“I don’t. But sometimes, thinking and hoping is better than nothing.”

Defeated, and possibly slightly disturbed, she sat back down, and I went back to attending to Mantis. I didn’t want to wake her up- who knows what that would do- but I didn’t want to take the risk of letting her lie there and somehow end up dying on us.

I looked up as Rocket shot into the rig of this ship… without Peter. My heartbeat turned erratic again as I looked past him, hoping Peter would come flying in right behind him. But he still hadn’t come, and as I stood up and spoke, my voice broke.

“Where’s Peter?”

Rocket only looked down at his feet and shook his head.

 _No… I’m not leaving without him… I_ can’t _leave without him._

“Rocket, where is he?” Rocket pulled out the timer for the bomb. “Rocket. Rocket, look at me! Where is he?”

I didn’t get a response out of Rocket, but Groot pointed back out into the canyon.

Frantically, I shot up and reached for one of the rifles.

“No. I’m not leaving without him.”

I cocked it and stared out into the void for a moment. This is what he would do for me, now I was doing it for him. And if I didn’t make it out… at least I saved someone I loved.

Pain suddenly shot through me and threw me onto the ground. It caused my mind to go fuzzy and my hands to drop the rifle, and before I lost consciousness, I heard Rocket mutter, “I’m sorry. I can only afford to lose one friend today.”


	14. Chapter 14

I started to come to with someone holding me against their warm chest. My shoulder and hair felt damp, the figure holding me was trembling and whispering things in my ear, and a hand gently stroked the back of my head.

“Please, wake up. Get up,” the voice hissed. “I can’t lose you, too.”

The voice. _That_ voice.

I moved a hand up and rested it on his rough cheek before opening my eyes to the blinding world around me. Mantis, Drax, Nebula, Gamora, Peter, Rocket, Groot, Kraglin… they were all looking at me, waiting for me to wake up.

“Allyson?”

I looked around at the faces again. There was one missing…

“Peter…”

He smiled at me and pulled me so close against him that I was having a hard time breathing.

“Oh, thank God.”

“Where’s Yondu?”

Everyone froze, and I felt Peter’s grip on me loosen slightly as he pushed me back slightly to look into my eyes. His mouth opened and closed a few times before tears spilled out from his eyes. That reaction… I suddenly understood. Peter and Yondu weren’t on the ship when Rocket knocked me out, and now only Peter was here. My chest tightened, and I reached out and wrapped my arms around him.

“I… I’m…”

I couldn’t finish what I was saying. Yondu had been important to my life as well, even if I hadn’t been around him much. For as tough and heartless as he acted, I could always tell that Yondu cared very much about Peter, and that he considered his safety very important. He was Peter’s real dad, even if he and Ego were related by blood.

Carefully, we helped each other up, and followed the others into another room. Yondu’s body had been laid out and mostly covered, surrounded by candles and relics from his life. His blue skin had crystals of ice dancing across it, his red eyes closed in finality. My heart tugged forward as I looked down at it. Something brushed my fingers, and when I looked down, Gamora was handing me a lighter. I nodded at her, then approached the body and pushed down the button to make the flame spring to life. I was careful to avoid the body as I blessed each candle with flame, then stepped back as Peter set down that little troll doll he had stuck into the fake orb, back when we were fighting for an Infinity Stone. Everyone went silent and bowed their head in respect, before Peter finally gathered the courage to speak.

“I told Allyson… how when I was a kid I used to pretend David Hasselhoff was my dad.” Rocket and Drax looked at each other with confused expressions. “He’s a singer and actor from Earth, really famous guy. Earlier, it struck me… Yondu didn’t have a talking car, but he did have a flying arrow. He didn’t have the beautiful voice of an angel, but he did have the whistle of one. Both Yondu and David Hasselhoff went on kick-ass adventures, and hooked up with hot women, and fought robots.” I sniffled and wiped a stray tear that managed to slip from my eyes. “I guess David Hasselhoff did kind of end up being my dad after all. Only it was you, Yondu.”

With shaking hands and slipping tears, I reached out and touched Peter’s shoulder.

“I had a pretty cool dad.” Tears were falling from his eyes now, and my hand moved down to hold his.

“What I’m trying to say here is… sometimes that thing you’re searching for your whole life… it’s right there by your side all along. You don’t even know it.”

Gamora suddenly turned and walked away, and I looked up at Peter again. He was right. Everything I’d ever wanted… it was right here.

“I am Groot,” Groot stated quietly.

“He did call you twig,” Rocket agreed.

I squeezed Peter’s hand a little tighter as I looked around at the scene in front of us. Even if one of us had been lost, this was what I had always wanted. Peter had given me that when I met him, even if it didn’t seem obvious at first. Peter had given me a life where I was happy; a life that wasn’t normal, but to be honest, was sort of ideal. I didn’t have to worry about the things I used to worry about, like paying monthly bills.

My breath hitched in my throat as I watched Kraglin and Peter push Yondu’s body into the multi-colored fire. While none of them were looking, I reached toward the side of my neck and pulled on a chain wrapped around it until the pendant that was attached to it dangled in front of my face. I had always worn this, but had never been brave enough to look at it. My fingers trembled as I opened the top of the locket and looked at the picture inside. A red-headed man had an arm wrapped around a woman with bright blue hair, and the other hand on a little girl with one brown eye and one blue.

There had been a time when they loved me, I’m sure. I just wished I knew when it had all gone south. And I wish I had known why. We all had loved each other, it couldn’t have been the people. Maybe something just ran in our family that caused us to be like this. Maybe, there would come a time when I would spiral down into madness. But I couldn’t think about that now. All I could do was focus on what was going on with those I was surrounded with.

I looked out the window to see ships of all shapes, sizes, and colors starting to flock together around where we had released Yondu’s ashes. They almost looked like… Ravager ships. With a smile somehow meeting my face, I turned on my heel and ran into the cockpit, where I found everyone but Nebula. Groot was standing on Peter’s shoulder and looking at the scene in awe as I approached them.

“It’s a Ravager funeral…” he whispered, hope starting to rise in his voice.

I felt Groot jump down onto my shoulder, and I carefully picked him up and pressed him against my chest as though he were my own child.

The ships set off fireworks that illuminated the dark sky, creating various shapes that had been important to Yondu. I was awed at what I was looking at. Even though he had broken the Ravager code, Yondu was being honored with the glory of a true member.

“He didn’t chase them away.” Rocket almost sounded sad as he said that.

“No.”

“Even though he yelled at them. And was always mean. And stole batteries he didn’t need.”

Peter and I both realized he wasn’t talking about Yondu anymore at the same time.

“Well, of course not.”

My heart swelled in that moment. My life wasn’t my parents… our lives weren’t our parents. We weren’t the people around us, and we shouldn’t be so scared of becoming them.

I removed Groot from my chest and handed him to Drax, where he yawned before falling asleep on him. I then looked over at Peter, and let my eyes slowly pan up to his face. It took him a few seconds, but he looked down at me, and an affectionate smile crossed his face that made my stomach jump.

“What?” he asked, his voice low.

“It’s just… some unspoken thing.”

He nodded slightly and didn’t open his mouth, as though trying to process whether or not this was really happening. His arm soon moved to wrap around me and pull me close against him, and I felt a comfortable, safe warmth. That same warmth he’d been making me feel for years; that warmth it’d taken me too long to succumb to.

“It’s beautiful,” I heard Mantis whisper in awe.

“It is. And so are you,” Drax complimented. “On the inside.”

We watched as the fireworks lit up the blackness, until they had faded and the ships started to depart. My eyelids were starting to drift shut, and after a yawn, I felt someone pulling me along.

“You wanna call it a night?” Peter asked, looking down at me with a new affection.

“Yeah…” I sighed.

He brought me into the biggest bedroom, with a queen-sized bed in the center, and the two of us removed our jackets and shoes before climbing into bed. Neither of us had pajamas with us at the moment, so we’d just have to do with sleeping in our normal clothes for now.

I almost immediately relaxed as Peter draped one of his arms against my waist, but my mind was still racing. Carefully, I turned around and looked at Peter, resting a hand on his cheek.

“I was so scared you were going to leave me,” I admitted. “It was all I’d ever known, I guess… I was worried you were just going to be another one on the list. But even after your dad tried to pull you to the dark side, you still came back.” I removed my hand, and he brushed some of my red hair from my face.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

My heart jumped and my stomach fluttered as he leaned forward and kissed me, something I’d never thought would happen. I moved my arm to wrap around his waist as I pressed myself closer against him, and when the kiss ended, he rested his forehead against mine. I let out a final sigh, and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.


End file.
